Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

So to compete in this much more dynamic and competitive environment, Anet needed to hold onto more players. You personally don’t like something that you didn’t see as necessary, but Anet has a whole lot more metrics than we do.

I understand the possibility, but I have my doubts about it. I’d like Anet to just tell us what the heck their reasoning is. If they just tell us yes, people are leaving and they’re not spending enough money to keep up with the costs, then fine, I’ll reluctantly accept.

Or perhaps not. I’d like to spend some money in the Gem store, but everything is way too expensive. If I want to buy one of those ever-lasting gathering tools I have to dish out about 10 bucks. 10 bucks for 1 single item? That’s insane. If they made that around 2 bucks, I’d happily pay for something every now and then, partly to support Anet.

Maybe instead of going the “Kitten the Manifesto”-way, they should try some other alternatives first.

AntiGw.9367:

A month of guild missions gives you two ascended accessories. A month of laurels gives you an amulet plus some leftovers for a ring. A few runs of fractals can get you your back piece.

That doesn’t go against anything Arena.net described. On the contrary, they constantly introduce new ways to get these things – consider that at launch all we had was karma farming for exotics if we didn’t want to do dungeons.

Coming from Guild Wars 1, I did not expect these things to be in the game and I believe they’re detrimental to having fun.

I just do not understand why they did not continue the philosophy behind Guild Wars 1, but with an improved battle system, a persistent world, and a few other small improvements.

Klawlyt.6507:

Shock, seriously. You know what i did when I was getting stressed about the direction the game seemed to be taking? I took a break. I did some stuff that was fun for me, instead of standing around here shouting on the forums.

We can go one of two ways from here. You can sigh, realize this is just a game, take it how it is, and continue enjoying the parts that you enjoy. Or, you can go do something else. At this point, you’re just starting to sound like a would-be ex who between sobs keeps saying “but you said you’d love me forever…”

And when you do find that game where the dye system reflects your ideals of social justice, please, come back and tell us about it.

In this entire discussion I have enjoyed Shockwave’s input the most. My suggestion would be to apply your suggestion to yourself and let those who truly dislike the current direction speak.

I don’t think there is all that much content to go through. It’s the grind achievements that take up all the time.

Go kill 300 transparent mobs! Go lit effigies on fire 50 times! Win a boring PvP mode 20 times!

Why can’t they just stick to achievements such as completing the actual story of the Living Story, or the added jumping puzzles. These are actually achievements (although some harder than others of course).

Away with the mindless grind and all these things become so much better.

Mungrul.9358:

Yeah, I’d like the challenge to be consistent across the board too. I’d like the game to be just as difficult in Queensdale as it is for the same character in Orr. Maybe a little advantage, but nowhere near the face-roll it is now.

This removes all need for a levelling system…

…I like it.

How is this problem not solved by removing Dailies, removing Ascended gear, and simply adding prestigious armors/weapons that look amazing and take a kittenload of gold and whatnot to achieve?

It seems to me the distinction between casual and hardcore comes from these elements in the game.

EDIT: The more I think about this, the more I miss Guild Wars 1 and how everything was done in that game. Unimportant ‘Dailies’, prestige-based items and not stats, no silly levelling, etc. I have never been active in the forums of Guild Wars 1, but did the same issue that we discuss here also arise there?

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Adults dont bother complaining about a computer game currency which rewards players for participation.

I guess adults also don’t play games?

Being critical of certain game elements doesn’t make you immature. It seems a bit offensive on your part to think otherwise.

Thobek.1730:

I would hate to rush around trying to accomplish dungeon’s, fractals, dailies etc if I only had less than 45mins to play the game. I now understand the reason to your complaints. I don’t think they are going to be able to fix it for people like you unfortunately.

I naturally don’t do Fractals when I want to only play for about 45 minutes. Instead I’d like to help out a guildie/friend killing some random stuff in a map somewhere. Perhaps do one of the awesome meta events. Or maybe I do some WvWing or PvPing. There are plenty of things for me to do in about 45 minutes in this game, but now I have to waste my time doing the Dailies because otherwise it takes me ages to get this other stuff I also ideally would like to have.

Then there are days I can play for many straight hours (read: weekend), but there is no way to catch up.

Anet has shown a willingness to rethink the assumptions that underlie MMORPGs, why not go the extra mile and get rid of the grinding mindset and allow casual play in the actual sense of the word?

Thobek.1730:

45mins should be more than enough.

Still too much. That’s sometimes the max. I want to play at a given day.

This daily system is the best I’ve come across, they reward you for logging in each day and keeping the game world alive.

I thought the game itself was supposed to be the reward, the fun gameplay and all that; not the fact that you would otherwise lose out on relatively rare (as they are time-gated) rewards.

Vayne.8563:

The question is, by percentage, how many people really object to what has to be the easiest dailies of any MMO? I’m think even though most people feel they should do the dailies, most people don’t dislike them.

I see your point and yes, that is a function of the Dailies; I just think it is not necessary in the least. After hitting 80 there’s still exploration, PvP, WvW, Ascended gear, Fractals, achievements, etc. to get. If you are not inclined to pursue these other areas of the game, and you need something explicit such as Dailies to guide people there, then I think that’s an indication of failed game design.

If you want people to participate in a certain area of the game, make it fun. If you want people to log into the game, make it fun. Nothing else is needed.

Vayne.8563:

Causes CERTAIN players to feel like they have to. Not all players. For one thing, certain players enjoy having that direction. For another thing, certain players don’t care. If you’re the type of person that feels you have to get them, then I feel sympathy for your plight. But they can’t design a game just for one type of player.

Making them weekly wouldn’t be a solution for a lot of players, because some players want something to orient them every day. You can’t please everyone.

As dailies go, these are about as easy as they get.

I dare to bet more people feel obliged to do the Dailies than there are people who would otherwise miss them because they can’t figure out what to do in the game. The people who want to play every day are probably very adequate in coming up with reasons to play, and therefore things to do in the game.

What must be considered is alternatives. It’s easy to do something besides Dailies that does not force you to log in every day and still provides you with plenty of goals to strive for.

Darth Llama.9217:

Dailies are for people that play causally and are happy getting the stuff and a slower but more casual pace. If you’re dead set on that Ascended Item, you’ll grind Fractals until you get it. If you’re not chomping at the bit to get it right away, you’ll get it through dailies when it’s convenient for you. No one is being forced to do anything.

I can’t say I agree. The Dailies are for the relatively hardcore. I’m a casual player with a full time job and other interests. Because of this I don’t want to play every day. In fact, it is truly insane to have something in place that carrots people into playing every single day. Games should only have this as a result due to the game truly being awesome, not because you lose out on rewards otherwise.

I experience a pull towards logging in every day to do the Dailies because I want the laurels to buy not just Ascended gear (doing Fractals is much more time consuming and as far as I know you can’t even get all Ascended gear with just doing Fractals), but also miniatures and eventually the most expensive item, the cat tonic. I’d love to get those things and I’m perfectly content with it taking a long time to get those things; but it is only taking a long time because of the Dailies. My point here is, is it wrong of me to want those things? I should not want those things and just be glad? Or can’t Anet think of other ways to get exactly the same things, that is more kind to those who don’t want to log in every day?

Let’s say I only want to play in the weekend; which is a fairly reasonable thing to desire for busy people. That means I can only get 2/7 laurels of that week, so I will take 3.5 times as long to get what I want compared to someone who logs in every day. If I want an Ascended piece of 35 laurels that will not take me 35 days to get, but 122.5 days instead (leaving out the Monthlies for now).

tl;dr: It is not wrong of me to want certain things in the game, hell, those items are there for that very reason. If alternative methods can be devised (say tokens that can be found throughout the world, without limitation (let the hardcore gamers get what they want quickly)) then that would be better.

All this talk about not wanting to want the daily’s is simply the wrong attitude to take. If it so happens that a significant portion of the player base happens to dislike it, then it doesn’t matter they’re ‘wrong’ to dislike it; it should be taken into consideration.

From a psychological perspective it is nonsense to ask people to change what they want. It is not strange people want the best gear, and dailies are one of the quickest/easiest ways to get them; it also not strange they want to finish a collection (mini’s), so considering what people want, dailies force them to login every day and do the dailies. They are not ‘wrong’ in wanting to finish their collection in the most efficient manner, it is actually the most rational thing to do.
A company such as Anet should realize how their mechanics affect people and how they play, and they should be the ones to judge whether they like the effects it has on their customers. If they don’t, they should not expect their customers to change their play style. It’s near impossible to achieve and only breeds discontent. The best way to make people happy is to change the situation in such a way that it matches our psychological dispositions.

Lastly, from a more ideological standpoint I think dailies are pure garbage. If you have to resort to these kind of game mechanics to get people to play your game, your game has failed.

marnick.4305:

It takes me less time to finish the new dailies than it takes for my fiancée to watch her 20 minutes daily soap opera. I don’t see the problem.

Which you can record and watch at another time if it so happens you were not capable of watching the show at a specific day. Not possible here.

Astraea.6075:

Confirmation windows can be a double-edged sword. Yes, they can be helpful for stopping accidental purchases, but they are an annoyance when you want to buy lots of a particular item (e.g. crafting reagents from the vendor).

Easily solved by a pop-up window where you can enter the number of items you want.

I’d like to add that confirmation windows would be a nice thing. I accidentally used an Abyss Dye that I wanted to sell. I was playing with a trackpad where a 2 finger press is a right click and a 1 finger click a left click. Due to lag I thought I hadn’t clicked yet, so I clicked again, but I missed by 1 finger, so it was a double left click and I used it, instead of opening the window to sell it on the TP.

CobaltSixty.1542:

Listen to yourself, arguing with a guy who is quite obviously just stirring you…

So it seems. =p

Nayru.4537:

Shifty.5187:

Nayru.4537:

Shifty.5187:

Nayru.4537:

Must be broken for you, I move 145x faster with my character. Report it.

I don’t think so bro.

Please keep the discussion constructive and stop arguing, thanks so much.

Stop arguing, as in, I can’t point out you’re likely false in your assertion? Your character does not move 145x faster than its original speed. End of story.

But it’s my character, you’ve never seen it, I think it does. I’m pretty fast.

Let’s assume a normal walking speed of 5 km/h. 145 the speed of that is 725 km/h. That’s about the speed of a commercial airline.

I’m personally of the opinion that anything that limits movement is just inferior to having game mechanics without it.

It’s incredibly frustrating to be pressing buttons and your character is not responding in any way.

Although I see how the stuns, knockdowns, etc., make sense as game play elements to fight each other, I just don’t think they’re any fun. Wouldn’t it be more fun to have infinite dodges, but not be invincible during them? Or have mobs pull themselves to you, instead of the other way around?

Nayru.4537:

Shifty.5187:

Nayru.4537:

Must be broken for you, I move 145x faster with my character. Report it.

I don’t think so bro.

Please keep the discussion constructive and stop arguing, thanks so much.

Stop arguing, as in, I can’t point out you’re likely false in your assertion? Your character does not move 145x faster than its original speed. End of story.

Nayru.4537:

Must be broken for you, I move 145x faster with my character. Report it.

I don’t think so bro.

PowerCat.5738:

Because buy more bank space, that’s why.

Which is why they recently added a bunch of new collectible tabs to your storage. Because more buy more bank space.

I’d like to add however, that I own both games now and I only play GW2. The combat style is so much more fun that that alone keeps me away from GW1.

As I am growing up myself now, and getting less and less time to game, I am surprised to see why you don’t like the Gem Store much. It is entirely optional, and most of the things you can buy there are either cosmetic, or they simply allow you to play with more relative ease. So instead of spending a lot of time on certain things, I can instead spend some money, to achieve what I want to achieve. None of these things involve competitive play or game-breaking benefits that you could otherwise not get, so I’m entirely fine with the Gem Store.

As for the comparison with GW1, I do miss GW1s incredible adherence to horizontal-progression only. I have farmed for the Obsidian armor set, and I did it purely for the HoM points. Strange as it may be, but that was definitely satisfying and I look back at it with a sense of accomplishment. There is definitely not a single need for it being better. So I share that view, I would love for GW2 to become less about stats and levels. How did GW1 get away without a vertical progression? I suppose it was exploration, getting that armor set you wanted, doing all the missions. I never ran out of things to do in GW1, and I don’t see why this cannot be done in GW2.

Lysico.4906:

Umm they don’t work in WvW there “goober”.. Might want to know that before you get all snarky with someone else..

Ah cool, I didn’t even know. Thanks for the info. =p

Quaz.4931:

People that buy boosters with RL money can run dungeons quicker

Doesnt matter that a lot of people don’t, the fact is that it is possible.

Honestly how are people even arguing the gem store doesnt give any advantage to those spend real money? Like I said before, you can argue how much of an advantage it gives, but it does give an advantage.

Yeah, just like those with more time can spend more time on getting better gear to do dungeons quicker.

And technically people can actually buy gear, too (by buying gold). It just doesn’t matter that they spend money to do so, or a kittenload of time. The only place where this matters is in PvP, and there it hardly is an issue.

I have 0 problems with people spending money, and therefore supporting the creators, on things that are actually also useful to them. The question is why you care. Fairness? I’d say being able to buy these things instead of having to spend a lot of time (a limited commodity, the older you get) is more fair, as it allows you to get the same stuff using different strategies.

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Dude, don’t be mad. I ‘conveniently’ left it out because I hardly play WvW and thus did not consider it. But on reflection, even the boosters there hardly matter, it’s one big zergfest anyway. Nonetheless, I think they should make the boosters work only in PvE (not WvW). And conveniently then, your whole point about the Gem Store is moot, which it already largely is.

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, and it got worse the more I went into it. They originally said no player would gain any advantage from the shop, it would be purely cosmetic. Well what can you buy in the shop?

- Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)
- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money
- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

Perhaps they could implement it after fixing the achievement point problems, both the HoM exploit and the infinite achievements (just get rid of them).

Well I’m at work, and my internet has been buggy as hell. That might explain some things.

I’ve been getting sound issues since I first started playing GW2 in OS X. I’m running Mountain Lion on a 27" iMac from 2012, and the problem is that often during loading screens the sound of other applications becomes messed up (e.g., Mumble). The sound starts to stutter, and it only seems to happen during loading screens, and it remains after that until I restart the other applications.

Sometimes I also get sound issues in the game itself, the same kind of problem (stuttering sound).

Any solutions?

Ravenmoon.5318:

Should be regular human cultural weapons/seraph

Yeah, just bought the T3 cultural weapons and decided to use those. Forgot those also existed. =p

Not sure if Logan actually uses those, though.

Hai guys, I’m wondering whether any of you know which weapon skins Logan uses. I’d like to get the same armor (cultural tier 3) and weapons as he uses.

I’ve googled and found some items like Logan’s Sword, but I don’t think you can actually find that in the game. Any advice?

Insanely exaggerated responses aside (leaving the game because of this? Please.), it is incredible how almost everybody seems to agree on this Ascended gear being a bad thing.

I curiously await Anet’s response.

Cempa.3645:

Its all for skin, just pixels in a game based on 2 weapon sets what da?

It’s for pixels and the very pleasing fact that you don’t have one.

Sollith.3502:

I find it funny how uncreative they are with the event designs… It wouldn’t be that hard to make a “one-time event” designed in a way that players don’t have to revolve their lives around one kitten game.

I think they are creative and I don’t revolve my life around that game, so I guess you can do it differently.

Anet has begun to disappoint me; oh well within the next few years I’ll have positioned myself to create a game far superior to anything they could ever do.

Really, bro? =p

Wendigo.7931:

Agreed. But this isn’t an epic event, as it lasts all of two hours.

You must be 24 hours to qualify as epic. Otherwise, you’re a poser.

Haha. Baby steps. The Mad King one-time event was a lame cutscene (sorry Anet) that wasn’t even working right for me since I only saw some smoke and flashy lights. Now this one is two-hours. We’ll get there!

Wendigo.7931:

Darknass.1903:

If it happened repeatedly the “awesomeness” of it would most likely diminish. I would rather witness something exceedingly epic that was scripted to only happen once rather then something that is much less fun that happens every couple of hours or something.

“Repeatedly.” Where does this word come from? I read my post, and yet cannot find it.

You people have very narrow definitions of what is “awesome.” To me, awesome is I’m walking around in Timberline Falls, and suddenly a dragon swoops down and starts tearing puppies up, without any announcement ahead of time that something like that was going to happen. THAT is awesome. These announced events that must always happen on a Sunday because of ANet’s agreement with Dragon Minions Local 137? Decidedly less awesome. I mean, they’re on the clock. They’re The Man. That’s a 50% awesome tax right there.

I agree that that is freakin’ awesome. But an epic event that happens only once and causes a permanent change in the world, well that’s also awesome.

Let’s just have both.

Wendigo.7931:

Shifty.5187:

So the relatively few should ruin it for the relatively many?

You don’t know that it’s the “many” at all. This is the time of highest concurrency, which is not the same as the time when 50%+1 or greater are on.

The comparison here is to have one-time events for as many people as possible, or none at all. Some cannot experience it, so nobody can have it. That’s the attitude, the silly attitude.

I guess the issue that’s up for discussion is whether or not they should hold the event at different times and let it occur several times, but that of course detracts from the awesomeness of the event.

I’d agree with you if they really offered something of great value during this event. But in all likelihood it is at best an achievement (and the experience) , and that simply does not make it worth not doing the event.

Shifty.5187:

People sometimes can’t get what they want while others do. Let’s not ruin the possibility for something truly awesome.

I looked up the definition for awesome. Strangely, I can’t find the part where it occurs in a narrow time window. Can you point it out for me? Are you looking at Websters or Oxford for that?

/ignore for being a kitten.

Wendigo.7931:

Josh Foreman.8250:

We run one-time events at the time where we have the highest concurrency.

But people who cannot play at the time of highest concurrency paid for the game too.

So the relatively few should ruin it for the relatively many?

People sometimes can’t get what they want while others do. Let’s not ruin the possibility for something truly awesome.

Also, perhaps we should delay the complaints to after the event. The same issue was discussed before the Mad King event, and that didn’t turn out to be a big deal. This time it will be at least somewhat different, but perhaps nothing worth getting butthurt over.

No Walking.6349:

Hi all,

So apparently subject alpha in CoE explorable has a bunch of abilities that he can cast named after the elder dragons, such as “Teeth of Primordius,” “Tooth of Jormag,” and…………….“Teeth of Mordramoth.”

If that isn’t proof, then I don’t know what is We can stop calling him bubbles now lol.

I see your argument, and I dismiss it. Bubbles is way too cool a name. Don’t take it away from us!

Hermes.7014:

Actually I do wonder if magic find has any effect at all or if it’s just a useless stat.
My +85% magic find doesn’t seem to make any difference in drop rates.
Maybe +1% magic find means +0,1% in drop rate…

The way I understood the mechanics of Magic Find is that 100% MF turns a 1% droprate into a 2% droprate.

Arnath.2319:

I hate that 99% of the game i am forced to wear magic find, Arenanet wants us to play as we like and gear as we like yet if you want to make money in this game or make a legendary before 2015 you have to use magic find.

I have been farming charged loadstones for a week now and not a single one has droped, when i tolled people i wasn’t using magic find i got abused by other players for being “stupid”.

Meanwhile those with magic find get one charged loadstone an hour, sometimes more sometimes less.

Every guide that explains how to make money in this game uses magic find.

Every world event, every pug dungeon run there are always people wearing magic find.

I hate magic find so much.

I do agree with this. Magic Find is simply the obvious choice to use when roaming Tyria, so it removes all variability (i.e., choice).

Perhaps we would be better off without.

I’d like to give a shout-out to Anet for changing a variation of butt kicking to kitten kicking. Now I sound absolutely horrible, instead of just profane. =P

Just make a cheap Rare set with magic find properties? You’ll use the MF set for situations where optimal performance isn’t ‘needed’, and switch to your uber set for kitten kicking. Sounds reasonable and makes your uber-set even more special.

Disclaimer: I read your post.

Seems like you could benefit from simply changing what you want in the game. Plenty of people accept the insanity of acquiring certain items, especially after you already have a full exotic gear. And that’s just fine.

Don’t want to farm for a LONG time? Don’t. Does that mean you can’t get some of the things you do actually want? Yeah, and that’s a bummer, but definitely not an incentive to change many of the things you suggested.

Anet does appear to give mixed signals as to what they want players to do, but I think that in reality, it’s not Anet. They simply try to please many different players, and give the players a lot of different options to play the game. If you don’t want to farm for ages, there’s exotic gear available that you can get within a week. Want more? There’s dungeon farming. Want even more than that? There’s the legendaries. Also the achievements are a reflection on those who want to get the most out of the game.

It’s a mistake to conclude you must want everything the game has to offer. Take what you like from the game, and have fun.

I do realize this attitude might prevent discussions on how to improve the game. If we just accept the game for what it is, it won’t improve. But I think this is one of the meta-design choices in the game that doesn’t require a makeover. It’s more specific issues that should be discussed (e.g., why are dungeons so BORING?).

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

I preferred the approach they took with GW1 dungeons. Stupid amounts of trash mobs everywhere, occasional ‘boss’. Killing big groups of trash is IMO more enjoyable than killing 2-3 not-so-challenging silvers. I love that one biggish trash mob in arah, as an example. Kind of wish it was bigger.

This man is a truth sayer.

Dungeons are so incredibly boring. I’m only doing them for the achievements and then I will never ever enter them, unless I really want an item. But I will not be doing it for fun!